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DEVILDRIVER Frontman Says He ‘Unleashed Unholy Hell’ On ‘Beast’

Mike Bax of Lithium Magazine recently conducted an interview with vocalist Dez Fafara of California metallers DEVILDRIVER. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow below.

Lithium Magazine: You’ve been into music your entire life. Was there every anything else you considered for a career when you were younger?

Dez: I did a lot of different things, man. I come from a construction family, so I was on the job site from a very young age. I’ve done everything that has to do with that industry, really — framing houses and roofing. I was a brick-layer for a long time. When I was a kid I worked at a gas station. I always worked — that was the thing with me. From age 13 to 14, I went out and found jobs at hardware stores or wherever. After that I went into hair. I was a hairdresser in Beverly Hills, which was a really crazy experience. I did a lot of different things. I think it’s important to work. I’ve got three boys and I tell them this all the time. I’ll say, “What’s important is that you have a job. It’s not what you do, it’s that you always be working.” It’s important.

Lithium Magazine: Is it easier to deliver aggressive music as a young man with no wife and kids as compared to the family man you are now?

Dez: I think it’s way easier now, man. If you listen to [the new DEVILDRIVER album] “Beast”, I went through my roughest time since I was in my early twenties when we were making that record. I unleashed unholy hell on that record. When you are in your twenties, I think you are pissed off, but you don’t really know what you are pissed off about. You’re just pissed off because you are in your twenties. Any kind of ignited force spread out with no opposition in front of it dissipates like air. That’s really what you are giving lyrically when you are in your twenties. When you creep up into your late thirties and you start delivering stuff that is coming from your soul deep within — I think that’s what’s happening with me at this point in DEVILDRIVER.

Lithium Magazine: Did you have anything set in stone when you went in this fifth album with your bandmates? Anything in particular you wanted to accomplish?

Dez: I wanted it to be a faster record. Other than that, we were all going through some times as well. Not with each other, just all in personal life that I think added to ferocity and the voracious attitude of this record. Really, not much needed to be said other than “Let’s go in and make sure that we hit our mark and we make sure that we don’t sound like anybody else out there.” People have been having a hard time defining what we are and where we fit in musically. It’s obvious we’re not death metal. It’s obvious we’re not this new American wave of heavy metal. They’re (journalists) having a hard time pinning us down and I think that’s important. As artists we wanted to make sure the record grew organically. We came in with something different. Beast really does sound different than the previous record.

Lithium Magazine: Who are using for a touring bassist right now? Will it be the same individual you’ll be using when we see you up [in Canada] at the end of July?

Dez: We’ll see. Aaron‘s [Patrick, a.k.a. Bubble, ex-BURY YOUR DEAD] doing a great job. He brings a different element to the band too — a different vibe. He’s a short haired, straight-edged physically fit guy. He brings a different vibe within the band that is really positive. He’s such a positive guy. People have taken to him live. He’s a totally different monster than [Jon] Miller was on stage. He’s his own separate thing, but it’s working out real well. We haven’t really thought about anything else. We are going to move forward with Aaron for a while. But we haven’t decided who’s going to fill Jon‘s shoes just yet.